Africa needs integrated markets, coordinated value chains

The post-harvest stages of food commodity value chains are essential to Africa’s agricultural productivity, argues UNECA’s Josué Dioné. They are essential for two reasons: First, to provide inputs to enable farmers to respond to demand, and second, to enable farmers to be connected to markets for their surplus products.

He also draws attention to the structure of food and agricultural markets in Africa, which he finds to be too fragmented and insufficiently integrated across regions and sub-regions. He points to the CAADP framework which is working on coordinated African food and agricultural systems and markets through the promotion of regionally-coordinate value chains of strategic commodities – like rice and maize.